Shipbucket

Second Period: June 1940 - Early August 1940 - The German invasion of the Republican Zone.

The bad news for the Republic came when the Frenchs capitulated on 22nd of June and France was splitted in two, a theoretically neutral Vichy France (although pro-axis in reality) and the occupied zone of France, therefore one of the first measures to take the Vichy government was to seal their frontiers to the Republicans, and, due to the German-Nationalist alliance the German divisions entered into Spain from the occuppied France because their true objective was to seize Gibraltar, the conquest of the Republican area was seen as a secondary - albeit necessary - objective.

That's how the Germans sent the 10th Infantry division supported by elements of the famous 7th Panzer Division to conquest Gibraltar, while some other divisions were deployed along various fronts of Spain, like the 1st Mountain Division for instance which was deployed around the central front due to it's mountainous environment.

The colony of Gibraltar felt in just two days (it was officialy conquered on 15th July 1940 and the siege started on the 13th) and it had an important effect on the British war morale, because it closed their western access to the Mediterranean. Although this important strategic position was lost for the British, they managed to evacuate many materials and important personalities and families. The then, governor of Gibraltar, Sir Clive Gerard Liddell said to the press "The union jack shall wave again on the rock, because there are still monkeys living on it" (some monkeys were also evacuated to safe zoologicals in the UK and even in North Ireland) and, one of the first measures to take the Germans once they entered into Gibraltar was to annhilate all the monkeys living there. (if you don't know the legend behind the monkeys of Gibraltar read it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_ma ... _Gibraltar)
Despite the Nationalist diplomat effort they only could get a compromise from the German government to get the rock back when the hostilites ended (IE, when the war was over)

Back to the main fronts, the German 4th Panzer Division broke the front using the Blitzkrieg tactics (very innovative for that year) in the basin of the Ebro and crippled the Republican side in two, because they entered up to the Mediterranean up to Amposta. However, thanks to the chaos many Republicans, and Basque and Catalonians nationalists managed to scape to Algiers, Casablanca, Lisbon and, finally, London. Even before the complete fall of the Republican territory and even before the scape of the president Negrín, some kind of government in exile was set up in London.
On the first of August the Republican territory officialy fell, and the campaign of Spain was considered to be very easy by the Germans thanks, specially to their aerial superiority, however it doesn't mean that there wasn't any aerial activity on the Republican side.

On July 20th, after Madrid fell, the government was moved to Valencia, but some pilots, based in an air base in Guadalajara using their Morane Saulnier fighters decided to make a last stand against the German Luftwaffe despite their inferiority:



obviously all the squadron was destroyed and every pilots except one (the one who told the history to the press) were killed or taken prisoner. This heroic action inspired the Spanish poet Antonio Machado (who made it to Malta and then to British controlled Egypt and didn't die like in OTL) to make a very famous poem called "El último vuelo de la gloriosa" (The last flight of the glorious one)*
It's notorious to note that this squadron chose to replace the red strip by the republican roundel and that they painted the republican air force insignia in the tail of their airplanes because they were not fighting agains other Spaniards but agains other foreign invaders.

Inside this period is worth to remark how the president Negrín scaped. Using a British supplied Supermarine Walrus:



he made an illegal flight to Oran where he entered in contact with the British intelligence to rescue he, his family and his closest contributors. They were rescued by the British Submarine HMS Triton and made it to Southampton and then to London where he took control of the already set up Spanish Republican government in exile (set up by the General Miaja: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Miaja who, in a beginning, was considered as a coward for having fled to London when France fell)

After the fall of the republican territory the Spanish Morocco was given back to the nationalists but, however they lost Equatorial Guinea because a mixture of early Free Frenchs forces captured it.

As it happens usually in these cases, the winning side captured many material**:




and they were used, in the considered low risk air fronts of the peninsula, IE, the mediterranean coast of Spain, while the German material (considered the best by the Nationalists) was used in the northen Atlantic coast of Spain and the Italian material was used to defend the South Western and south coast of Spain.

After the fall of the Republican territories, the Nationalist were given sovereignty over every Spanish land except for Gibraltar (which was kept under German military administration). They had sovereignty over the Spanish Sahara, and Canary islands. They entered negotiations with Germany to get sovereignty over the French Morocco and they eventually got it... in December 1940.

Back to the Republicans, the exiles had only two options, to try to reach the UK via Algeria, Morocco and Portugal, or to try to reach the British controlled Egypt. These two choices made that many Spanish republicans were present (with their own units) in the main fronts of the WW2.


*The Republican air force was nicknamed the Glorious one
**More post shall be dedicated to the nationalist air force

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Currently working on:

• Fiat G.50
  Breda Ba.64/65/75
  Dornier Do.17/Do.215
  Heinkel He.79
  Junkers Ju.52
  Junkers J.I

Repainting:

• Grumman F4F Wildcat/Grumman G-36
  Caproni Ca.135bis

Nice work!